Collaborates with Bluetooth headset innovator on mobile collaboration
Cisco this week said it collaborating on mobile collaboration with Jawbone, a maker of wearable Bluetooth technology products, to offer headsets that bridge mobile and IP phones. With the Jawbone ICON for Cisco Bluetooth Headset, workers in an office building will be able to move throughout the enterprise while talking on a cellphone and then bridge that call to their IP phone handset when they park themselves in an office.
Similarly, employees can take a call from their desk phone and the next from their cellphone at the same time on the same headset. Employees can remain connected to both phones at the same time and don’t have to pick up the handset on their ringing phone, then pick up their cellphone when it rings. So easy even Lucille Ball could use it fluster-free…
Cisco says this capability is an example of unified wired/wireless mobile communications.
Cisco recently announced this capability, sans headset, for SMBs with its SPA525G2 IP Phone. Jawbone ICON for Cisco Bluetooth Headsets will come bundled with Cisco’s Unified IP Phones 9951 and 9971 but can work with any Bluetooth-enabled Cisco Unified IP or Unified IP Wireless phone, and the new Cius tablet. The headset will allow users to switch the call among these endpoints as they change locations, Cisco says.
Shipments of the Jawbone ICON for Cisco Bluetooth Headsets have begun in the U.S. and Canada, bundled with Cisco Unified IP Phones 9951 and 9971. International shipments will begin in October.
Jawbone, also known as Aliph, is a privately-held company based in San Francisco. It was founded in 1999 by two Stanford undergrads, and its flagship Bluetooth headset debuted in 2006. The ICON came out earlier this year. Cisco says the company has won numerous consumer awards and its designs are on exhibit at such renowned venues as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Sounds like Jawbone fits the profile of a Cisco acquisition target…
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